The top stop spots are in Pottawattamie, Poweshiek and Cass counties, where officers look for drugs headed east.

Nov. 30, 2013

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Hitting one of Iowa’s interstate highways to drive home at the end of this holiday weekend?

Here is some information that could save you money and spare you a conversation with an Iowa Highway Patrol interdiction team officer — especially if you’re going to be traveling in Pottawattamie, Poweshiek or Cass counties.

A recent Reader’s Watchdog investigation found the vast majority of violations and warnings issued by state patrol interdiction teams — 86 percent — went to out-of-state drivers.

Additional analysis of five years of state data provided by the patrol reveals where criminal interdiction team members are most likely to stop motorists.

• In western Iowa, you might want to check your speed just before mile marker 5 on Interstate Highway 80 in Pottawattamie County near the Iowa-Nebraska border. That’s where specially trained state troopers on the interdiction teams have issued 785 tickets and warnings in the last five years — the No. 1 hot spot, according to state data.

• The No. 2 location for the patrol’s interdiction teams to nab scofflaws appears to be at mile marker 201 on Interstate Highway 80 near Grinnell in Poweshiek County. Some 555 citations and warnings were written there from 2008 to 2012.

• In fact, Poweshiek County appears to be the most heavily ticketed county by the interdiction teams. Of the more than 22,000 tickets and warnings reviewed by the Reader’s Watchdog, 5,693 violations occurred in the east- and westbound lanes of I-80 in Poweshiek County.

• Other high-ticket counties: At least some interdiction team officers have a fondness for pulling drivers over on I-80 in Pottawattamie and Cass counties, where violations and warnings numbered 3,849 and 2,736, respectively, over the past five years.

More tickets near where troopers live

While most of the state’s 360 troopers are scattered in varying numbers across the state, half of the 10 troopers on the two interdiction teams live and work in those high-volume counties, state patrol spokesman Sgt. Scott Bright said.

Bright said interdiction team members also tend to work most in areas that have lower traffic volume than Polk County, where stops can create more hazards for other travelers along the interstate highways.

Bright said stops made by interdiction team members should be no different for drivers from those made by other troopers. But some readers have complained to the Register about intrusive questioning after being pulled over by interdiction team members.

Those officers work in duos and receive a higher level of training than other troopers. Their charge is to aggressively seek out individuals responsible for drug, firearms, human trafficking and other crimes — as well as to write up traffic offenses. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the teams have used intelligence data, experience and more intensive questioning of drivers to ferret out drug dealers and other criminals.

Last year, the teams seized 776 pounds of marijuana, 5.5 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.8 pounds of cocaine, according to the latest numbers from the patrol. They also have nabbed human trafficking suspects, undocumented workers and a terrorism suspect, Bright said.

I-80 a hot ticket spot compared with I-35

A sampling of data obtained from the 10 troopers on the interdiction teams suggests Interstate 80 is by far a focal point for trying to nab drug runners and other criminals.

Along Interstate 35, 1,351 tickets and warnings were written in the four counties south of Polk but north of the Iowa-Missouri border from 2008 to 2012. Even fewer were written north of Polk County.

But on I-80, the eastbound lanes garnered more than 11,000 tickets and warnings, while westbound lanes logged 7,456.

The Register’s initial report showed that drivers from California, Colorado and Illinois ranked 1-2-3 in number of warnings and citations, after drivers from Iowa.

Pottawattamie County attorney Matthew Wilber said he’s not surprised interdiction team members nab the most drivers on a stretch of I-80 close to a Council Bluffs exit.

“That is a well-known local trap,” he said. “Council Bluffs police are also there a lot.”

Wilber said it makes sense that most violations would be in eastbound lanes.

“It’s pretty well known that drugs move east” to places like Chicago, he said, “and cash moves west. You would hope they would be focusing on the drugs.”

Wilber said Iowa is a pass-through state, and most of the largest drug seizures he’s aware of come from vehicles headed to other destinations.

State patrolman Ken Haas, a patrol officer who is a member of an interdiction team, has been nationally recognized for his drug-interception work from Council Bluffs to Cass County, Wilber said.

Many counties see few or no tickets

The Register’s analysis showed the interdiction teams’ presence is scarce in 83 of Iowa’s 99 counties.

In four out of five counties, fewer than 100 violations were logged by the interdiction officers over the five-year span.

In fact, 49 Iowa counties showed no tickets or warnings issued by interdiction team members, and 15 counties showed four or fewer citations or warnings.

Annual figures show Iowa’s 35 special drug agents also had few or no cases in many of those counties in 2012 and 2013.

Montgomery County Sheriff Joe Sampson said state patrol and state drug agents are there when needed, but the absence in rural Iowa is a reflection of cutbacks in state law enforcement over time.

“They have to go where the people are,” he said. “If you’re going fishing, you’re going to go to the schools, not the singles.”

But Bright said team members still work with law enforcement officers in all counties.

“If we get intelligence, we share it with everybody in the state,” he said.

Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com or 515-284-8549. Read past reports at DesMoinesRegister.com/ReadersWatchdog.